Main post election in the US congress: McCarthy fails even on the second attempt Why more and more Swiss are buying a holiday home in Greece

Republican Kevin McCarthy has suffered a bitter defeat in the election for Speaker of the US House of Representatives. In the vote in the constituent session of the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday, McCarthy also missed the required majority for the powerful office in the US on the second ballot. It is the first time in a hundred years that it took more than one election attempt and that a parliamentary group failed to elect its candidate in the first round.

After the parliamentary elections in November, the congress met for the first time in a new configuration on Tuesday. The Republicans took over the leadership in the House of Representatives – in the Senate, President Joe Biden’s Democrats still have a narrow majority. The Republicans’ bitter internal battle for leadership in the House of Representatives has been raging for weeks. But now things turned out worse than expected for McCarthy.

The position of president of the chamber, held in recent years by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, ranks third nationally after the president and his vice president. Usually the choice is a formality. But several party members rebelled against McCarthy and had already made it clear before the election that they did not want to vote for McCarthy. He made some concessions to his opponents, because given the narrow majority of Republicans in the chamber, he depends on almost every vote.

For McCarthy, his defeat in both ballots is a public revelation that also shows the party’s inner turmoil. It has been a hundred years since a candidate for the House of Representatives vote failed to secure the required majority on the first ballot: in 1923, nine ballots were needed to elect a leader. Then it took several days.

In the afternoon (local time), it remained unclear how many more votes would be needed to elect a new chairman for the chamber. It was also unclear whether the election would last several days. Each vote takes a long time because all MPs are individually called to nominate their preferred candidate.

The election of the Speaker is the first major official act of a newly elected House of Representatives. And until there is clarity about the presidency, nothing works: the Chamber of Congress cannot begin its work, not even the new MPs can be sworn in.

In the first and second rounds, McCarthy received only 203 of the 434 votes cast – he would have needed 218. In both attempts, 19 party members refused to vote for him. It was previously expected that a large number of party members would not support him.

After the first ballot, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan nominated McCarthy for the second try and urged his party colleagues to close ranks. But immediately after, one of McCarthy’s strongest opponents, MP Matt Gaetz, struck – and nominated Jordan of all people. Jordan is a loyal supporter of ex-President Donald Trump and eventually rallied all 19 dissenters behind him in the second round.

McCarthy had shown himself belligerent shortly before the meeting, saying: “I hold the record for the longest speech in plenary.” He has no problem setting a record for most ballots in a vote for the presidency of the House of Representatives.

Even if McCarthy ultimately prevails, he will emerge weakened and will struggle to organize majorities in the Congressional chamber for years to come.

McCarthy revealed visibly annoyed on Tuesday that he was told on Monday that he would only get the necessary votes if he gave certain positions and budgets to certain members of the group. In fact, his opponent Gaetz flatly said he didn’t care if, in case of doubt, the Democratic nominee would win the election. According to McCarthy, his opponents are only concerned with personal advancement, not the country. There may be a “struggle” in the plenum of the room, but it’s about the whole group and the country, “and I’m okay with that”.

The Republican faction in the House of Representatives, like the party as a whole, is torn between Trump’s right-wing supporters and more moderate party members. Faced with a slim majority, McCarthy must unite the various wings behind him and even recruit members from the margins of his faction to become leader. The Democrats have no chance of single-handedly appointing the chairman because they are the smaller faction in the chamber. (sda/dpa)